AI voicebot improved taxpayers experience

A I • Jun 14,2024

Summary: 

The Office of the Revenue Commissioners in Ireland (Revenue) employed an AI-powered voice bot to provide on-demand and flexible customer service. Integrated with the company’s telephony system and backend transactional system, this AI voice bot ensures immediate availability and real-time updates of customer cases.

Client: 

Revenue serves the community by fairly and efficiently collecting taxes and duties and implementing Customs controls. Revenue currently employs approximately 6,600 staff (full time equivalents). Staff are located in some 70 Revenue offices distributed throughout the country.

Problem Statement: 

Revenue handles over three million calls annually. To better meet customer needs, Revenue implemented AI automated services and natural language processing. They sought an AI-powered conversational virtual agent capable of answering calls, comprehending the caller’s inquiries, and providing satisfactory responses in a natural, conversational manner.

 

Results: 

  • Voicebot technology delivers 24/7 automated service, ensuring an efficient and effective customer experience.
  • The virtual agent handles 55% of calls from start to finish.
  • 70% of first-time applicants used the voicebot to submit their applications. 
  • 75% of tax clearance holders successfully retrieved their tax clearance access number (TCAN) using the voicebot.
  • Only 10% of calls needed to be transferred to a human operator due to the voicebot’s inability to understand the request.

AI Solution Overview:

Revenue initiated a pilot project focused on tax clearance calls to explore a new approach to managing customer inquiries. The goal was to validate the technology and provide a 24/7 automated service, enhancing efficiency and effectiveness for customers. With many taxpayers desiring more flexible interactions with their tax agency and being familiar with AI, a virtual agent proved to be an ideal solution.

Accenture’s Liquid Studio London contributed expertise in AI and Voice Experience Design, ensuring the project ran smoothly and swiftly. Using the Accenture Conversational AI platform, the team accelerated the time to market to just a few months and enhanced the system’s ability to integrate future innovations.

The solution included over 200 unique dialogue steps, covered 18 possible use cases, and could recognize 21 intents. It integrated speech detection, text-to-speech, and natural language processing technologies.

References: 

  1. Improving taxpayer experience: Revenue’s voicebot. https://www.accenture.com/us-en/case-studies/public-service/revenue-voicebot
  2. Revenue agencies. https://www.accenture.com/us-en/services/public-service/revenue-agency
  3. VDA – Voicebot on calls from Irish taxpayer on tax clearance. https://ai-watch.github.io/AI-watch-T6-X/service/90060.html

Industry: Public Services

Vendor: Accenture

Client/Clients: The Office of the Revenue Commissioners in Ireland (Revenue)

Publication Date: 2018

Previos Article

Next Article